The full 2023 Saxo Scandinavian Film Festival programme presented by Palace, has a wide and vibrant selection set to ease the winter chill. Specially curated, the programme contains the best new cinema from the Nordic region featuring films from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
Opening the Festival is the Australian Premiere of LET THE RIVER FLOW (Ellos eatnu – La elva leve), fresh from being crowned the Audience Award at the 2023 Göteborg Film Festival, and starring magnetic newcomer and proud Sámi Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen. Based on true events that inspired a generation of young Norwegians, writer/director Ole Giæver’s elegant, multi award-winning drama follows a young woman who is unintentionally drawn into a protest against a dam that may flood Indigenous Sámi land.
Festival Centrepiece GODLAND (Volaða land) is award winning Icelandic writer/director Hlynur Pálmason’s follow-up to his breakout hit A White, White Day and has been met with widespread critical acclaim. The stunning historical drama follows a Danish priest who embarks on a pilgrimage across a largely unexplored Iceland in the late 1800s.
Treats are in store for lovers of Scandi neo-Noir, thrillers and psychological dramas. From Denmark the highly anticipated sequel to box office smash Darkland, DARKLAND: THE RETURN (Underverden II) from critically acclaimed director Fenar Ahmad starring Dar Salim as an anti-hero re-entering the Copenhagen underworld undercover; SUPERPOSITION, a slick dramatic thriller with a supernatural twist in which a couple, on a tree change from Copenhagen to the Swedish forest, hope to find themselves and reignite their relationship and COPENHAGEN DOES NOT EXIST (København findes ikke), a complex psychological drama about the power of memories, in which a young man agrees to be locked in an apartment and interrogated by his missing girlfriends’ father.
Crowned best Nordic film at the 2023 Göteborg Film Festival, UNRULY (Ustyrlig) is an unsettling 1930s-set drama inspired by real-life events from the notorious women’s institution on the Danish Island of Sprogø that taught compliance to ‘morally deficient’ girls.
Fascinating documentary THE KING (Kungen) is a thought-provoking and poetic film about Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf, who became the world’s youngest kind. Two years in the making, direct Karin af Klintberg has made a modern film about a not very modern occupation.
The Closing Night selection is the cult classic LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (Låt den rätte komma in), celebrating its 15thanniversary. When Oskar, a shy 12-year-old boy meets the mysterious and moody Eli, their bond forever changes their lives in this influential tale of love that gets the blood pumping.
And many more films to choose from HERE
The 2023 Saxo Scandinavian Film Festival will take place at the Palace Cinema, Jonson Street, from 20 July to 9 August.